1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spin valve sensor with a modified magnetostriction and, more particularly, to a spin valve sensor wherein the magnetostriction of the free layer structure is modified by a unique construction of a pinned layer structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
The heart of a computer is a magnetic disk drive which includes a rotating magnetic disk, a slider that has read and write heads, a suspension arm above the rotating disk and an actuator arm that swings the suspension arm to place the read and write heads over selected circular tracks on the rotating disk. The suspension arm biases the slider into contact with the surface of the disk when the disk is not rotating but, when the disk rotates, air is swirled by the rotating disk adjacent an air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider causing the slider to ride on an air bearing a slight distance from the surface of the rotating disk. When the slider rides on the air bearing the write and read heads are employed for writing magnetic impressions to and reading magnetic signal fields from the rotating disk. The read and write heads are connected to processing circuitry that operates according to a computer program to implement the writing and reading functions.
An exemplary high performance read head employs a spin valve sensor for sensing the magnetic signal fields from the rotating magnetic disk. The sensor includes a nonmagnetic electrically conductive first spacer layer sandwiched between a ferromagnetic pinned layer structure and a ferromagnetic free layer structure. An antiferromagnetic pinning layer interfaces the pinned layer structure for pinning a magnetic moment of the pinned layer structure 90xc2x0 to an air bearing surface (ABS) wherein the ABS is an exposed surface of the sensor that faces the magnetic disk. First and second leads are connected to the spin valve sensor for conducting a sense current therethrough. A magnetic moment of the free layer structure is free to rotate upwardly and downwardly with respect to the ABS from a quiescent or bias point position in response to positive and negative magnetic field signals from a rotating magnetic disk. The quiescent position, which is parallel to the ABS, is the position of the magnetic moment of the free layer structure with the sense current but without signal fields from the magnetic disk.
The thickness of the spacer layer is chosen so that shunting of the sense current and a magnetic coupling between the free and pinned layer structures are minimized. This thickness is typically less than the mean free path of electrons conducted through the sensor. With this arrangement, a portion of the conduction electrons are scattered at the interfaces of the spacer layer with the pinned and free layer structures. When the magnetic moments of the pinned and free layer structures are parallel with respect to one another scattering is minimal and when their magnetic moments are antiparallel scattering is maximized. Changes in scattering changes the resistance of the spin valve sensor as a function of cos xcex8, where xcex8 is the angle between the magnetic moments of the pinned and free layer structures. The sensitivity of the sensor is quantified as magnetoresistive coefficient dr/R where dr is the change in the resistance of the sensor as the magnetic moment of the free layer structure rotates from a position parallel with respect to the magnetic moment of the pinned layer structure to an antiparallel position with respect thereto and R is the resistance of the sensor when the magnetic moments are parallel.
In addition to the spin valve sensor the read head includes nonconductive nonmagnetic first and second read gap layers and ferromagnetic first and second shield layers. The spin valve sensor is located between the first and second read gap layers and the first and second read gap layers are located between the first and second shield layers. In the construction of the read head the first shield layer is formed first followed by formation of the first read gap layer, the spin valve sensor, the second read gap layer and the second shield layer. Spin valve sensors are classified as a top or a bottom spin valve sensor depending upon whether the pinning layer is located near the bottom of the sensor close to the first read gap layer or near the top of the sensor close to the second read gap layer. Spin valve sensors are further classified as simple pinned or antiparallel pinned depending upon whether the pinned layer structure is one or more ferromagnetic layers with a unidirectional magnetic moment or a pair of ferromagnetic layers that are separated by a coupling layer with magnetic moments of the ferromagnetic layers being antiparallel. Spin valve sensors are still further classified as single or dual wherein a single spin valve sensor employs only one pinned layer and a dual spin valve sensor employs two pinned layers with the free layer structure located therebetween.
The transfer curve of a spin valve sensor is defined by the aforementioned cos xcex8 where xcex8 is the angle between the directions of the magnetic moments of the free and pinned layers. In a spin valve sensor subjected to positive and negative magnetic signal fields from a moving magnetic disk, which are typically chosen to be equal in magnitude, it is desirable that positive and negative changes in the resistance of the spin valve read head above and below a bias point on the transfer curve of the sensor be equal so that the positive and negative readback signals are equal. When the direction of the magnetic moment of the free layer is substantially parallel to the ABS and the direction of the magnetic moment of the pinned layer is perpendicular to the ABS in a quiescent state (no signal from the magnetic disk) the positive and negative readback signals should be equal when sensing positive and negative fields from the magnetic disk.
Accordingly, the bias point should be located midway between the top and bottom of the transfer curve. When the bias point is located below the midway point the spin valve sensor is negatively biased and has positive asymmetry and when the bias point is above the midway point the spin valve sensor is positively biased and has negative asymmetry. When the readback signals are asymmetrical, signal output and dynamic range of the sensor are reduced. Readback asymmetry is defined as             V      1        -          V      2            max    ⁡          (                        V          1                ⁢                  xe2x80x83                ⁢        or        ⁢                  xe2x80x83                ⁢                  V          2                    )      
For example, +10% readback asymmetry means that the positive readback signal V1 is 10% greater than it should be to obtain readback symmetry. 10% readback asymmetry is acceptable in some applications. +10% readback asymmetry may not be acceptable in applications where the applied field magnetizes the free layer close to saturation. The designer strives to improve asymmetry of the readback signals as much as practical with the goal being symmetry.
The location of the transfer curve relative to the bias point is influenced by four major forces on the free layer of a spin valve sensor, namely a ferromagnetic coupling field HFC between the pinned layer and the free layer, a net demagnetizing (demag) field HD from the pinned layer, a sense current field HI from all conductive layers of the spin valve except the free layer, a net image current field HIM from the first and second shield layers.
Another factor that can affect readback asymmetry is positive magnetostriction of the free layer structure. If the free layer structure has positive magnetostriction and is subjected to compressive stress, there will be a stress-induced anisotropy that urges the magnetic moment of the free layer from the aforementioned position parallel to the ABS toward a position perpendicular to the ABS. The result is readback asymmetry. The compressive stress occurs after the magnetic head is lapped at the ABS to form the stripe height of the sensor of the read head. After lapping, the free layer is in compression and this, in combination with positive magnetostriction, causes the aforementioned readback asymmetry. It is interesting to note that if the free layer structure has negative magnetostriction in combination with compressive stress that the magnetic moment of the free layer is strengthened along the position parallel to the ABS. A high negative magnetostriction, however, is not desirable because it makes the magnetic moment of the free layer structure stiff and less responsive to field signals from the rotating magnetic disk. Accordingly, it is desirable that the magnetostriction of the free layer be zero or only slightly negative.
Unfortunately, magnetostriction of the free layer is difficult to control in present sputtering deposition systems. A typical free layer structure includes first and second free layers wherein the first free layer is cobalt iron and the second free layer is nickel iron with the first free layer interfacing the copper spacer layer for increasing the magnetoresistive coefficient dr/R of the sensor. Typical compositions of the free layers are cobalt iron (Co90Fe10) for the first free layer and nickel iron (Ni83Fe17) for the second free layer. When these layers are formed by sputter deposition the free layer structure invariably has an undesirable positive magnetostriction. In the past, the positive magnetostriction of the free layers has been accomplished by changing the composition of the free layers, such as reducing the iron content in the nickel iron and/or reducing the iron content in the cobalt iron. Since there is typically more than one nickel iron and cobalt iron layer in the spin valve sensor, this means that the targets in the sensor have to be changed in order to change the composition and lower the magnetostriction of the free layer structure.
The present invention provides a pinned layer structure and a method of construction thereof which provides the free layer structure with a desired magnetostriction without changing the target composition of the free layer structure within an ion beam sputtering system. This is accomplished by providing the pinned layer structure with ferromagnetic first, second and third pinned films wherein the second and third pinned films are composed of cobalt iron and the first pinned film is composed of nickel iron. The first pinned film is located between the second and third pinned films and the third film interfaces the copper spacer layer. In examples where the nickel iron first pinned film was 4 xc3x85, 6 xc3x85 and 8 xc3x85 the magnetostriction was xe2x88x920.7, xe2x88x920.4 and xe2x88x920.28, respectively. In a preferred embodiment, the pinned layer structure is an antiparallel (AP) pinned layer structure where an antiparallel coupling layer is located between first and second antiparallel (AP) pinned layers. By strong antiparallel coupling between the first and second AP pinned layers their magnetic moments are antiparallel. The second AP pinned layer of this structure provides the aforementioned first, second and third pinned films. The AP pinned layer structure exerts a small net demagnetizing field (HD) on the free layer structure and is fully described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,185 which is incorporated by reference herein.
An object of the present invention is to provide a pinned layer structure which provides a free layer structure with an acceptable magnetostriction.
Another object is that for a given composition of a free layer structure that an acceptable magnetostriction of the free layer structure can be obtained by modifying the pinned layer structure.
A further object is to provide a pinned layer structure which enables multiple cobalt iron layers of a spin valve sensor to be fabricated in a sputtering chamber with a single cobalt iron target and/or multiple nickel iron layers to be fabricated with a single nickel iron target while obtaining a desirable magnetostriction of a free layer structure.
A further object is to provide a method of making the aforementioned spin valve sensors.
Other objects and attendant advantages of the invention will be appreciated upon reading the following description taken together with the accompanying drawings.